Kate's Revenge

Our Production, enjoy!

Summary of our Filming Days

Day 1) On this day we filmed all our shots that comprise our "present day" timeline in addition to all the shots of trains that we used in our production.
For the present day timeline we filmed inside Bourne cemetary, we started at 8 o'clock and we were planning to stay there until 11; however we managed to get all the shots we needed very quickly and with no problems. The shots we took here were those of our original idea for the title screen that was to have the credits roll on the gravestones. We later abandoned this idea as it proved to be impractical and didn't look good or in theme with the rest of the production.
In addition to the gravestone shots we also filmed our intro that consists of Connor Marshall walking towards a gravestone (not showing the name) while carrying flowers and placng them at the base of the grave.
Subsequently we moved to the Tallington level crossing and took our shots of the trains to use in the production; it took from 1 till 3 to get a wide variety of shots that we could use in the film.

Day 2) In this day we filmed all the shots from the flashback that is the main bulk of the production. We filmed at a discontinued train line in Rippingale, here we managed to get all our footage and came up with our current idea of the credits that consisted of writing our credits on the track sleepers. However this idea was discarded as the tracks were wet and we couldn't write properly on them, however we modified this idea and wrote the credits on some planks that Matthew had the good idea to bring. These planks were then positioned on one of the abandoned train locomotives that was present on site. We also used the same planks to write our title on.
Overall the day went without any major problems although the sun caused havoc by creating annoying shadows that always seemed to get caught on camera.

Unconventional and Conventional Properties of The Buttefly Effect

Genre - Thriller	Conventional (Typical)	Unconventional (Not Typical)
Mise en scene (what is put in the scene) Lighting         Costumes         Props	Dark, dreary lighting suggests the start of a conventional thriller as the darkness could play a part in the suspense and seriousness. Shadowy, distorted lighting from the window slants show that it is a person but cannot identify full features and therefore makes the audience feel uncomfortable.   Moved the sofa to prevent anybody getting in so he has done something wrong. No personal connection to him yet so no real sympathy.   Wearing a gown like one a hospital patient would wear.   Quite typical clothes that a young boy would wear in fairly modern times.   Authority clothing of woman banging on the window.   Lighting of the Sunnyvale Institution is a bit dark, dreary and creepy. The low-level lighting doesn’t welcome children. Also, the fact that she is taking her child there at night is strange as it is common to take children places during the day.   Dynamite that Tommy is excited about using is shows instability and a messed up mind.	The journal is an unconventional prop during this film due to the fact that the use of children’s journals aren’t seen much in thrillers as they are seen as showing innocence for the child.
Characters	Evan and his mum have a fairly good relationship although his dad has a problem so therefore he cannot do much with him.   Tommy quite an aggressive child, possible family problems or child abuse/stress.   Evan running from people in starting scene and hiding from darkness quite related to the drawing. Shows he may have had problems from the start.   Evan’s father needs to be handcuffed due to his illness and his instability. He also talks to his son in a slightly patronising way.	Strange that 7 year old Kayleigh comes to support Evan at his dad’s funeral alone.
Plot	Go back in time to find out what has happened, a quest that needs to be solved. She had died due to his actions and he wishes he could go back in time to save her. Mother thinks Evan has his fathers’ Illness. She hasn’t explained to him what is going on so he feels scared about everything that is happening.   Dad starts strangling him which is really surprising and comes out of nowhere.   Irritating storyline due to the constant blackouts making you miss parts of the film so you don’t understand particularly what is going on.	Quote at start of film foreshadows the events of the film.
Setting	Sunnyvale Institution shows an irony due to the name of it being a psychiatric institute.	Nice typical American suburb with a lot of colour and greenery, normal realistic start… Quite a modern era.
Sound - Diegetic     Non-diegetic	Gripping, fast music builds tension and you feel quite excited to find out what is going to happen. Slow mysterious music takes over which is a bit possessive and scary due to the creepiness of the drawing.   The non-digetic panicky sound when he’s holding a knife is very sudden and similar for a conventional thriller.   Fast non-diegetic sound that slows down once the panic is gone and the dad dies.
Representations   Of death	Why is Evan holding a knife and behaving the way he is.
Editing	‘Thirteen years earlier’ – quite typical of a thriller, indicates the time in which it is set.   Fast editing shows fade out and going forward in time.	Psychological Thriller possibly to do with his brain due to the skull on the title screen.
Camera shots/angles	Close-up view and camera that follows him around allows a personal movement and makes the film more smooth and less boring. Adds tensions too as quick movement makes you want to watch and find out what is happening.   Low-angle camera shot from behind and just to the right shows focus on Sunnyvale Institute as well as them being important in the big picture.   Constant high-angle shot shows Evan as being vulnerable.	No typical cutting from one thing to the next to make you panic.

 

7 year old does an amazing drawing but quite disturbing due to the fact it is a drawing of a murderer after being asked to draw what he wants to be when he is older. Authority shown by the murderer as he is standing on top of his victims. He seems smaller than the victims too which could show that he feels being smaller may mean he gets picked on by the bigger kids and he just wants to get payback.  Kid couldn’t remember drawing it.

Evan clearly doesn’t understand what he has done but his mum seems worried enough to make the audience think that she’s seen something like it before, possibly with her husband.

Reviewed Props and Equipment List

Our original props and equipment lists have had to be reviewed because our initial ideas differ from what we ended up doing and using. Our first props list told of how we were going to use the materials from Branch Brothers and create our very own train tracks to use for the filming of our production. This is not the way we did it in the end as we found a much better solution in using an actual inactive track in Rippingale instead of going through the painful experience of trying to build our own tracks even if it would show more imagination. Because of this, we ended up using completely different props to that which was mentioned in our previous post for the props.

Props:

Gravestone - For the mourner to put the flowers at that would give the indication of death which is a conventional theme for thriller films.

Flowers - To indicate that the mourner actually cares for the person who has died, allowing the audience to fell at least some sympathy for the person that had died and channel more hate towards the killer.

Balaclava - To hide the identity of the killer and make it even more effective when he pulls his mask off and reveals his true identity.

Torn piece on beclloth - To act as a makeshift gag to use to prevent our victim from screaming or causing any loud noises that could give away what is happening.

Handbag - For our victim to be holding to give a sense of realism and to be thrown away dramatically by our victim to show that she really is fighting for her life and that is all she cares about at that moment in time.

Planks and Chalk - Used to create our credits and titles using clever filming and inspired ideas to create good titles to flash in  and out throughout the film.

 

Equipment:

2 Tripods
2 Cameras
1 Video Camera Dolly
2 Umbrella's
1 Clipboard

Final Edition of Shot List

1. Production ident
2. Gravestone with "presents" on it. Mid close-up.
3. "Kate's Revenge" written on plank on side of train, shot zooms out, close-up to long-shot
4. Cut away shot of the train, extreme close-up
5. "Connor Marshall" written on plank
6. Shot of Connor walking through graveyard
7. Close-up of gravestone with Connor walking towards it
8. ECU of flowers being laid
9. Cut away shot of train moving, close-up
10. Fade to white - "Annbelle Potts" written on plank
11. Shot of Annabelle standing on platform, mid-shot
12. Pan shot moving on dolly towards Annabelle
13. "James Craig" written on plank
14. Front shot of Annabelle standing on platform, James comes up behind, gags her, pulls her on to ground and puts her over his shoulder
15. Long shot of James/Annabelle walking down the platform
16. "Directed by Matthew Bostock" written on plank
17. Cut away shot of train, close up
18. Low shot of James throwing Annabelle on to track, mid-shot
19. "Edited by James Parronchi" written on plank
20. Cut away shot of train, extreme close up
21. Shot of James tying Annabelle down to track, long shot
22. Shot of James tying Annabelle down to track, mid shot
23. Cut away shot of train moving, extreme close up
24. High angle shot of James getting up and running after Annabelle
25. Mid shot of James picking up Annabelle and carrying her over to train track
26. Match on action shot of James/Annabelle walking over to train track
27. Match on action shot of James/Annabelle walking over to train track
28. Mid shot of James putting Annabelle down onto train track
29. "Narrated by Henry Saunston" written onto plank
30. Over shoulder shot of James pulling off balaclava
31. Shot-reverse-shot of Annabelle looking shocked
32. Mid shot of the rock
33. Close up of James's hand moving towards Annabelle's face
34. Mid shot of James tying Annabelle to train track
35. Cut away of train, long shot
36. Low angle shot showing Annabelle's face with James jumping up onto platform and walking away
37. High angle shot of Annabelle laying on train track
38. Close up of Annabelle screaming, fade to black.

Reviewed Shot List Changes

We thought we had a fairly good final edition of our shot list on our blogs but we decided that it wasn't precise enough compared to our new edition of our thriller production. Our final shot list, as seen earlier on my blog, is 13 posts long whereas our new shot list is 38 amount of shots which shows that we misjudged how many shots we were going to have to take during our thriller production. Our new, reviewed shot list has added a lot more to our film as there are loads of new angles added in which allows the audience to see the reaction and emotions protrayed on  the faces of the actors. It has also allowed us to use over the shoulder shots and concentrate more on background through mise en scene too. For example, in shot 11, there is a lot of focus on the shadow that is creeping along the back wall that shows the audience that a key event is about to occur and builds the tension up towards it.

Our misjudgement is shown clearly in the fact that our revised shot list has so many more posts that have added so much more to our production. In contrast to our starting production, our final edition has a much more intense, uncomfortable feel to it because of the extreme close-ups of the trains that we have added in throughout. These also helped to mask any continuity errors that we had in our film, giving us a way of covering up any problems that we had during the filming of our production. We also have added in a backing track that adds mystery and a sense of depression to the film. Our new shot list also shows the new way in which we have re-structured our film. Our previous shot list showed us having all of our credits at the end and Annabelle's death and mourning scenes being at the end whereas in our re-structured production and shot list, we have the mourning happening at the start, followed by a flashback of how the death occured. Also, the credits showing the actor's names are now thrown in just before each actor appears and the other credits are put in, just like the trains, to mask any errors and also because it shows a contrast between the busy and bustling film and the cuts of the silence and words written on boards which I believe makes the audience feel uncomfortable because there is such a huge contrast between peaceful and busy.

Inspirations

 

This Prezi contains our main 4 inspirations that contributed towards our ideas and our final edit of our production.

Preliminary Task

 

 We started by making a story board so we know exactly what we are doing;

 

The preliminary task completed

 These are the 5 different settings that we have been to whilst videoing this task.

This first photo is before we supposed to do a tracking shot of me and Laura walking. Shannon and James have them panned it to show that we have walked pass them .

 

This image is a when me and Laura were just about to open the door, to show how we walk out of the door. We have kept the camera on that side so that we do not have any continuity problems, so we had to stick with the 180 degree rule.

This is an image of James getting ready to film us just as we walk round the corner. This got a nice 2 shot but also a long shot of me and Laura.

This is two shot of me and Laura and it shows that we are walking towards the canteen. This is also a long shot but required the pan movement as we were about to turn.

This is the last setting and the most important one because we play cards in this setting and therefore there is some good used of a variety of shots.

Evaluation

I think that we have learned a lot from this task; for example the good things i thought was some of the shot angles and the way that we thought out the story. We have worked as a team very well and agreed and compromised together to get the final result.

However, there are lots of jump cuts and we do have some problems with continuity. Also whilst editing, we have realised that if we have done things differently, it would of made editing part a lot more easier.

On the actual thriller, i would like to keep working in a great team of people and learn from our mistakes that we have seen straight away after we have done the prelim. task.

Photos from our Second Filming Day

 We decided upon doing our credits this way when we were on set. We planned on laying them accross the tracks as if they were the actual sleepers but the sun became too much of an issue and we couldn't manage to get the still movement along the tracks from handheld or the dolly. Because of this, we improvised and decided that this could work quite well as the sun wouldnt not be an issue and the credits looked good on the front of a real life train.

 

 

 

This shot shows how much of an issue the sun caused because we were constantly having to be aware of our shadows being in the shot. Due to the fact that we did not foresee the sun being such an issue in the middle of winter on such a cold day, we started filming from one side and because of the sun appearing, we were not able to stick to the 180 degree rule beause the shadows of the tripod and the people filming was ending up in every sequence of film.

 

 

 

This image shows a complete view of our set for filming with the platform on the left and the train straight ahead on the tracks which we had to be careful to avoid seeing in our shots as another train cannot hit anyone when there is an inactive train sitting on the tracks that would be in the way of any train coming towards us. We had to use the area to the right of this shot too because the sun was behind us then and also, our film was not long enough without adding something in so we decided that adding Annabelle running away could be a nice touch and help add a little more to our production. Unfortunately, kneeing somebody in the head was hard to perform safely and it did not look too convincing on camera but we used it anyway as our film was simply not long enough without it and we did not have enough shots of other things to make it any longer without adding that scene in.

 

Overall, our second filming day went very well. The location was ideal, and the weather was quite like the first filming day except it was colder and the sun caused some issues for us. We managed to get all of our shots with the actors on site without too much difficulty although we probably didn't do enough filming and we did not have sufficient footage to play around with. Luckily, we finished filming in good time which this gave us the time to explore other techniques to use in our production.

Actor Profiles

 

Name: Annabelle Potts
Age: 17
Role: Victim (Kate)

Annabelle was chosen for this role because she looks like the type of person who would be waiting for a train early on a morning. Annabelle's height is not dissimilar to the height of our protagonist, James, meaning that James could throw Annabelle over his shoulder without too much difficulty

Name: James Craig
Age: 16
Role: Protagonist

James has an interest in acting, and is part of our media group, which is why he was chosen for this task. James is a similar height to Annabelle, which meant he could throw her over his shoulder easily. James was able to play the part well, and when dressed in a balaclava, looked like a traditional killer.

Name: Connor Marshall
Age: 17
Role: Mourner

Connor was chosen for this role as he has the ability to look sad, and as though he would be able to be mourning at a grave. Connor played this role very well, and enabled us to get all the shots we needed.

Rippingale Train Track Shot

This shot shows the a complete view of the layout of where we are filming. This picture was taken at about 3:30 in the afternoon though so it is much darker than it will be at the actual time when we are looking to film.
The surrounding fields might be quite useful to show open land and that it is genuinely a train track in the middle of nowhere. Also, the train that is already on the track is inactive but it could be useful in helping us to produce an ident or even our titles and credits.
The house behind is an old railway station and has a proper platform in front of it which we will use to our advantage to perform the kidnapping although getting our damsel in distress onto the platform may be a struggle to perform and and make to look realistic.
Unfortunately, this area is the end of the inactive line so we have to film in the direction of the inactive train that is in the way of an actual train coming, causing problems with our storyline. The other direction to film in shows the end of the line which could cause an issue with our storyline as the train would not be travelling at the usual speeds when the line is about to end. Luckily, a train would still kill anyone it hit even going at 5mph so hopefully people will see it that way and still ntoice that our storyline is possible and realistic.

Tallington Filming Photos

This shot shows our tripod with my camera from home set up on top. This camera is much better quality than the school camera so we decided that our most important filming should be done on that camera although we would have to switch at some point because the battery does not last very long. We brought two tripods so in the end we used both cameras at the same tike anyway.

 

 

This shot shows Matt setting up the camera and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our first train of the day.

This picture shows us enjoying a fairly mild day while waiting for the train to arrive.

This image shows Connor and I setting up the camera for a high angle shot of the tracks from above. At this point, we realised that the bridge barriers were at the same height as the tripod at its highest point so we had to do a bit of investigating to get these shots to work.

This shot shows me standing in the middle of the road (being watched by curious onlookers in their cars) trying to set the camera up so we could get a very high angle shot by holding the tripod with the camera on the end, up in the air. Needless to say, it was a failure.

This picture shows me attempting what is explained above. Now it is clear why this failed.